To select and place qualified native English teachers in public schools, in order to strengthen practical English education
for primary and secondary students
To improve the quality of native English teachers by providing them with specialized training and support

Based on those stated purposes, I would say #2 and #3 are more true than the other choices listed, and because it's also been stated that native English teachers would be phased-out at some point in the relatively near future, I would assert that "to learn from foreign expertise" (#2) would ultimately be the main purpose of the program. Perhaps at that point (when there is no longer need for EPIK), the propaganda aims of promoting Korea by showcasing its educational system could be achieved.

The high school in Gyeonggi province for 5 years was considered rural, and I liked teaching there -mainly because I got along well with all the Korean teachers and administrators, and it was close enough to Seoul (about 80 minutes by low-cost Express Bus) that I could go there every weekend for entertainment/shopping. The key thing is having good relations with Korean co-teachers and students (which is why I always gave out lots of candy, cookies, etc. and tried to make classes fun, using lots of music and videos, including some Korean pop-culture.) Somehow, I had a lot of lot of freedom to design the curriculum and had great high-tech facility in the classroom, which may-or-may-not be the case in many rural schools (and other grade levels).

(Btw, you'd probably get more responses if you posted in the "Job Discussion" Forum.)

EPIK aims do cover introducing Koreans to foreigners so maybe introducing them to rural Koreans is an extension of this. That is why the salary hits W2.7million for rural EPIK locations.

What's it like teaching out in the sticks?

BDB

The "sticks" is a town of 220'000 people, and besides being absent a few western amenities (cheese is hard to find) is pretty much just like any other big city in Korea. I do teach at a "country" middle school once a week where they only have one class per grade with 20-30 students a class. The school has less than 80 students total.